The present invention relates to a heterostructure as is for example applied in field effect transistors in power electronics and high temperature electronics. With this, in particular heterostructures which have an In(Ga)N channel, an (Al)GaN capping layer and a GaN buffer layer are used. On account of the material properties of GaN and their compounds such as (Al)GaN and In(Ga)N, these heterostructures have been intensively researched in order to permit applications in power electronics and high temperature electronics.
With heterostructures having an In(Ga)N channel, an (Al)GaN capping layer and a GaN buffer layer or GaN substrate, the In(Ga)N (hereinafter InGaN) channel is stressed on account of the differing lattice constants. On account of the material, by way of this in the GaN/InGaN/GaN system there arise piezoelectric fields, which at the boundary interfaces produce polarized charges (piezocharges). A GaN/InGaN/GaN heterostructure at the same time has a positive boundary interface charge at the InGaN/GaN transition and a negative boundary interface charge at the InGaN/GaN transition (interface). With an indium content of 100%, the produced boundary interface charges may reach a charge carrier density of 1.3×1014 cm−2. The advantage of this structure lies in the fact that the charges produced by the piezoelectric fields are located in the channel. On account of the material properties of GaN there additionally form spontaneous polarization charges on the surface and on the buffer rear-face, which however only have a secondary influence on the transistor properties.
Piezoelectric fields in GaN/InGaN heterostructures play a very important part if these structures are applied as irradiation-emitting semiconductor chips (light diodes). In WO 00/21143, the active layer in such a heterostructure comprises a single- or multi-quantum wave structure. In order to eliminate the influence on the piezoelectric fields in the quantum films, which compromises the irradiation behavior of such semiconductor chips, these fields are eliminated as much as possible by way of doping.
FIG. 1 shows in its part picture 1A such a heterostructure with a buffer 1, with a channel 2, with a capping layer 3 and the boundary interfaces 5 and 6 between the layers 1/2 and the layers 2/3, respectively. Furthermore, the piezocharges are shown wherein one may recognize that the produced positive piezocharge, or piezoinduced positive charges, 10 is located on the boundary interface 5 and the produced negative piezocharge, or piezoinduced negative charges, 11 is located on the boundary interface 6. The piezocharges 10, 11 then move oppositely according to the arrows A and B under the influence of an applied external field E.
From literature there are known modulation-doped (MODFET), channel-doped and undoped (piezo-FET) AlGaN/GaN field effect transistors. In the AlGaN/GaN system, stresses also lead to piezoelectric fields that form polarized charges at the boundary interfaces. In contrast to a GaN/InGaN/GaN system, both boundary interface charges are not located in the channel, but the negative charge is located at the AlGaN/GaN interface as 2DEG (2-dimensional electron gas) and the positive charge is located on the AlGaN surface.
The disadvantage of such a structure is the fact that the bonded boundary interface charge at the AlGaN/GaN boundary interface is in interaction with the counter-pole surface charge by way of the polarized fields. The surface charges in DC operation of a GaN-based transistor have little influence on the output characteristics. In RF operation the charge on the surface must follow the channel charge on account of its interaction. Assuming the charges in the channel move at a higher speed than the surface charge, then with a characteristic frequency in RF operation the surface charge no longer follows the channel charge. This now counter-pole, quasi-stationary charge violates the neutrality condition and may now trap the free charges in the channel with the result that the output current reduces and the maximal RF power reduces with respect to the DC power.
In contrast to the AlGaN/GaN system, with the GaN/InGaN/GaN system no boundary interface charge produced by the piezoelectric polarization is located on the sample surface. An interaction between the piezoelectric polarization charge and the surface charge is avoided. By way of this, the effect of current compensation and the resulting power reduction with a high-frequency entry power observed with AlGaN/GaN transistors is reduced.
In a GaN/InGaN/GaN structure, the positive boundary interface charge on the rear-face InGaN/GaN interface and the induced negative boundary interface charge on the GaN/InGaN front-face interface contribute to the transport of current. In comparison to GaN or AlGaN, the electron movability in InGaN is considerably higher and according to theoretical computations may be 4500 cm2/Vsec. The movability of holes in the InGaN is however a multiple smaller than the electron movability. The resulting net current flow given by the positive boundary interface charge and negative boundary interface charge is determined by the condition of the charge neutrality, i.e., the slower hole current determines the resulting cut-off frequency of the component. Furthermore the channel may be blocked by a pn-transition.
It is then the object of the present invention to avoid the above mentioned disadvantages with heterostructures with a channel of a piezopolar.